


When I Feel That Something

by Anthusiasm (HalfwayDecentFanfiction)



Category: RWBY
Genre: Cuddling, F/F, Getting Together, Mentions of past abuse, Mutual Pining, Sharing Body Heat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-10 05:27:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12292263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HalfwayDecentFanfiction/pseuds/Anthusiasm
Summary: Yang is convinced Blake doesn't like her.  This is, of course, unacceptable.





	When I Feel That Something

**Author's Note:**

  * For [romnovs (tashatops)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tashatops/gifts).



When Yang first met Blake, she thought Blake was hot in an intimidating and aloof way. But after a day of classes together, she realized that she was wrong. Blake was _cute_.

The slightly formal way she spoke was cute—it was almost painfully obvious that she’d taken most of her speech patterns from books, and not people. Her small half-smile was cute, and, as Yang found out when she managed to make Blake giggle with a joke about Professor Port’s monotone, her laugh was cute too. And the way she arched her back like a cat when she stretched was almost hopelessly endearing.

By the end of the day, she was pretty sure she wanted to ask Blake out. Of course, she figured just saying “do you want to go out with me” would be boring.

“Anyway, I’m just glad class is done for the day,” she said, leading Blake into their room and closing the door behind them. “I have no idea why Beacon starts school in the spring, I can’t concentrate when it’s this hot.”

“It is a bit distracting,” said Blake. Yang tried to suppress a grin. She was about to become a lot more distracting than the weather.

“Good thing we’re back in our room,” said Yang, “so I can do this.” Slowly, teasingly, she peeled off her shirt and tossed it on her bed.

Blake stood still, eyes wide, mouth slightly open.

“I mean, it’s super hot in here, right?” said Yang. “It’s not just me?” She winked, then reached for the clasp of her bra.

“I have homework,” Blake said. Carefully avoiding Yang’s eyes, she ran out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

“Huh,” Yang said to herself. “Either she’s not into me, or she’s _really_ into me.”

* * *

“Blake doesn’t like me,” said Yang. She dropped her school bag on the ground and flopped onto her bed.

“Of course she likes you, what are you talking about?” said Ruby.

“She doesn’t talk to me unless she has to,” said Yang, ticking off her fingers. “She can barely make eye contact with me.”

“That’s just how Blake is,” said Ruby. “You kind of have to talk to her first.”

“She goes out of her way to avoid me,” said Yang. “She literally leaves the room whenever I walk in.”

“We’ve only been roommates for a week, she’s probably just not comfortable sharing a room yet,” said Ruby. “Besides, everyone likes you.”

“I know! I'm _great_!” said Yang. “I’m pretty sure she either thought I was hitting on her—”

“ _Were_ you hitting on her?”

“Or I did something else to piss her off. And I need you to ask her what it was, okay?”

“Wait, what? Why me?”

“She likes _you_ ,” said Yang.

“Yang," said Ruby, "remember that time when you asked that guy if he liked you, and he said no, and you yelled ‘why the hell not?’ at him right in the middle of the cafeteria? You didn’t even like him! You thought he smelled weird!”

“This is different. Blake’s my partner. Forever. If I screw this up, it could be a problem for the rest of my life.”

“This is weird,” Ruby whined, pulling her hood over her head. “You’re my big sister. I’m supposed to be the one trying to make you do my social interaction for me, and you’re supposed to be the one telling me to suck it up.”

The door opened. Blake stepped in.

Yang immediately sat up. “Hey, Blake!”

Blake blinked. “Hello,” she said. “I have to go.” She turned and closed the door.

Yang moaned and flopped back onto the bed, facedown this time.

“That was probably a coincidence,” said Ruby.

“Please,” Yang moaned into her pillow.

“Nope,” said Ruby. “This is your job. You’re Yang. Do…Yang things at her.”

“Fine. I will,” said Yang, sitting up. “I’m not going to give up. We will become best friends, no matter what her problem is. I’ll do so many Yang things at her she won’t know what hit her.”

“That sentence,” said Ruby, “did not convince me that you’re not hitting on her. Also, gross, you’re my sister.”

Yang threw a pillow at Ruby’s head. “Shut up.” 

* * *

_Okay_ , Yang thought to herself as she scanned the cafeteria for Blake. _Blake Belladonna is not intimidating. She is cute, and withdrawn, and shy, and you are going to have a friendly conversation, damn it_.

When she finally spotted Blake, she slid into the seat across from her before Blake had a chance to see her and escape, and said, “Hey!”

Blake greeted her with what seemed like the tiniest nod a human could produce and stared intently at her book.

“I just got done talking to my dad on my scroll,” said Yang. “Apparently a student in his class didn't hand in an assignment, then tried to trick my dad into thinking that she _had_ handed it in, and that he'd just lost it. It didn't work.”

Blake turned a page. Which was fine. Just fine. Yang knew how to have an entire friendly conversation by herself if she needed to.

“I got away with that a ton of times, actually,” said Yang. “I asked my dad if I should start a business where I teach people how to lie to their teachers, and he threatened to disown me.”

The corners of Blake’s mouth quirked upwards. Yang decided to count that as a victory.

“I feel like we haven’t talked about your family at all,” she said. “Where are you from, anyway?”

In the middle of turning the page of her book, Blake froze. As if automatically, her hand rose up and she lightly brushed her hair bow.

“I…” said Blake. Yang leaned forward, impatient. Blake's lip twitched, almost imperceptibly.

“I have to go,” Blake said, snapping her book shut and scrambling to her feet.

“Wait, what?” said Yang, blinking. Blake turned and half-ran, half-walked towards the exit.

“I can tell you’re not done with your food!” Yang yelled after her. 

* * *

“So, how’d it go?” said Ruby, hanging upside down from her bunk bed.

“Pretty bad,” said Yang.

“Wait, really?” said Ruby.

“I asked her about where she’s from and she freaked out,” said Yang. She sat on her own bed, staring at Blake’s empty one. It was neatly made, military-style, just as it had been for the past several days. Yang realized she’d never actually seen Blake asleep in her bed. Apparently, Blake was so determined to avoid her that she was sleeping in a closet somewhere, instead of their dorm.

She hopped to the ground and started examining Blake’s bookshelf.

“Yeah, Ren’s kind of the same way,” said Ruby, blowing a strand of upside-down hair out of her face. “I guess that’s what happens when you grow up outside the kingdoms.”

Against all odds, Yang realized, Ruby was probably right. And, somehow, that made it worse. Knowing that Blake would rather deal with her problems all by herself than come to Yang for support stung more than everything else combined.

“What are you looking for, anyway?” said Ruby.

“I’m trying to figure out what books she likes,” said Yang. “Maybe she won’t feel as nervous around me if I get her a present or something.”

“You should get her the new _Ninjas of Love_ ,” said Ruby. “Because you _love_ her.” She made a kissing noise.

Yang pulled Ruby down to the ground and started tickling her.

“Hey, let me up!” said Ruby.

“You promise no more weird kissing noises?”

“Cross my heart,” said Ruby.

Yang let her up, and Ruby darted for the doorway.

“I lied!” she said, puckering her lips again. “Yang and Blake sitting in a tree—”

Yang lunged for her, but Ruby ran down the hall. Smiling in spite of herself, Yang let her go, and turned back to Blake’s bookshelf.

* * *

It took almost half a day of hanging out in the Beacon Academy courtyard, but Blake eventually walked by. Shoving her wrapped package under her arm, Yang bounded towards Blake and pulled her into a one-armed hug, nearly tackling her to the ground.

“Happy first week and a half at Beacon!” Yang said, holding out the package.

“You didn’t have to do that,” said Blake, looking at the floor. The tiniest hint of a blush appeared on her cheeks.

“Yeah, but I wanted to!” said Yang. “Go on, open it.”

Tentatively, as if afraid something was going to leap out of it, Blake reached for the package. Yang resisted the urge to bounce as she watched Blake pull out a tiny glass statue of a red-haired girl with a crown on her head and a pair of silver shoes on her feet.

“I saw you had _Lina in the Red Underland_ on your bookshelf, and it looked like you’d read it a few times, and there’s a store in town that sells these really cute little statues of characters from classic children’s stories, so here, this is for you,” Yang said.

Her summary was glossing over a few things—she’d actually had to go a couple towns over to find the store she wanted, and she’d spent a good couple hours haggling with the shopkeeper—but Blake didn’t need to know that.

“It's beautiful,” Blake said. She swallowed, and gently traced the statue with her finger.

“I know,” said Yang, cheerfully.

“I can’t take this,” said Blake, shoving the statue back into Yang’s arms.

“But I—”

“I can’t,” said Blake, finally looking up. She looked so upset that Yang took an involuntary step back.

“I don’t know why you won’t just leave me alone,” Blake said, choking with emotion. She turned and ran.

* * *

“Wait, so she didn’t like the statue?” said Ruby.

“She definitely liked the statue,” said Yang. “She just didn't like that I was the one who gave it to her.”

“Whatever you did to piss her off must’ve been pretty bad if she can resist Yang dialed up to 11,” said Ruby.

“Well, I don’t think I did anything wrong.” Yang felt her voice break as she said “wrong,” and realized there were tears welling up in her eyes.

“Yang?” said Ruby, sounding almost scared. Shit. She shouldn’t have cried in front of Ruby.

“I think I need to be alone,” she said, not looking Ruby in the eye.

“Okay,” Ruby said softly. “I’m just gonna…okay.” She left.

Yang swiped at her eyes furiously, accidentally scratching her cheek with her fingernails in the process.

So Blake didn’t like her. Fine. That was just fine. That was probably better than getting used to having a partner who cared about you and had your back only to have her turn on you decades into your relationship and disappear without a trace. Or whatever.

She could just get used to it.

* * *

Unfortunately, Beacon Academy didn’t seem to want her to get used to it.

Their assignment for the weekend was to practice their survival skills training by camping in the mountains. In pairs.

(“It could be worse,” Ruby had said to her as they packed up their tents. “We both know Weiss is going to spend the entire time yelling at me for not gathering firewood fast enough or whatever.”

“At least Weiss talks to you,” Yang had replied).

So far, they’d spent the entire trip without speaking except to coordinate setting up their campsite, and Blake had mostly stuck to one-word responses. At this point, Yang was hoping for a Grimm attack. At least then she could let some of her frustration loose.

Blake had dragged her sleeping bag as far away from Yang's as possible before attempting to go to sleep. After noticing this, Yang did the same, then tried to sleep. Unfortunately, whatever village Blake had grown up in was clearly located somewhere a lot warmer than Vale, and she didn't seem to be able to handle the cold mountain air. Even tightly curled up in her sleeping bag, she was shaking so hard Yang could tell from the other side of the tent.

Eventually, Yang got up and crawled towards her.

“Look,” she said. “I get that you hate me for some reason, but if we don’t find a way to warm you up, you might get seriously sick. You need my body heat.”

Avoiding Yang's eyes, Blake unzipped her sleeping bag with trembling hands. Yang crawled in and wrapped her arms around Blake’s shoulders, enjoying the feeling of Blake’s body in her arms in spite of everything.

Their breathing refused to synchronize, and it rose and fell in a just-barely-off rhythm that drove Yang crazy. Blake’s elbow was digging into Yang’s stomach, but they were so close together, Yang couldn’t move to a more comfortable position. An owl hooted almost mockingly in the distance.

Then Blake said, “It’s not that I don’t like you.”

“Really? Because I tried to give you a present and you yelled at me and told me to leave you alone.”

Blake shifted uncomfortably, digging her elbow into Yang’s ribs instead. “I thought you were making fun of me because _Lina in the Red Underland_ is a book for children.”

“If I were going to make fun of you, I wouldn't buy you a passive-aggressive present, I'd just, y'know, make fun of you. With words,” said Yang.

“The truth is,” Blake began. She paused and took a deep breath. “I like you a lot. Romantically.”

Yang blinked. “Wait. This was because you had a crush on me?”

“I’m sorry,” Blake said, and, as if a dam had broken, words started pouring out of Blake’s mouth. “I know you don't feel the same way, and I was scared you’d find out because we have to spend so much time together and share a room and everything. I started sleeping other places because you were, um, changing in our room and I thought you probably wouldn’t want me around if you knew I, um, I enjoyed it.”

Yang couldn't help herself. She started giggling.

"What's so funny?" Blake said, sounding defensive and a bit injured.

“I literally took my shirt off in front of you and winked," said Yang. "I spent two hours haggling with an old lady to buy you a statue of a children's book character. These aren't mixed signals, okay?" She started giggling again. 

“Two _hours_?” said Blake, sounding distraught.

“It wasn’t that big of a deal,” said Yang. She felt Blake bury her face in her hands.

“This is why I didn’t want to say anything,” said Blake. “You’re so…warm, and inviting, and I’m not good at relationships, I’m...sulky and I don’t think to do nice things for people. And you kept asking me about where I came from, and I knew that if you knew everything, you wouldn’t want anything to do with me.”

Yang squeezed Blake tight, then craned her neck forward slightly and kissed her softly on the cheek. Blake let out a squeak that was most certainly not in keeping with her brooding loner aesthetic.

“Blake,” said Yang, “we are seventeen. No one’s expecting you to be some kind of love expert. And I know you grew up outside the kingdoms, so I’m not expecting you to be a model of mental health, either.”

“It’s not just that,” said Blake, and Yang felt Blake’s back muscles tighten. “I…I haven’t dated the nicest people, in the past, and I—” she stopped, seemingly unable to speak. “I’m sorry, it’s just…really hard for me to talk about.”

“So don’t,” Yang murmured in Blake’s ear.

“What?”

“If you’re not ready to talk about it, don’t talk about it.”

“But it’s not fair to you if you don’t know.”

“Blake,” said Yang, “turn around.”

It took a lot of maneuvering, and she accidentally hit Yang on the head with her elbow twice, but Blake eventually managed.

Yang took Blake’s face in her hands and kissed her. Blake tensed, then relaxed, letting out a small moan.

“You don’t have to worry about your past,” she said, gently kissing Blake’s neck, “or the future,” she kissed Blake’s collarbone, “or anything at all except what’s happening right here, right now. I’ve got stuff that’s happened to me, too, but we don’t need to worry about any of that yet. Just enjoy yourself,” she ran her fingers down the back of Blake’s neck. Blake gasped, and squeezed Yang tightly, “and later, when we’re both ready, we can talk about whatever you need to talk about. Okay?”

“I’d like that,” Blake said breathlessly. “But are you _sure_ —” Yang kissed her again, this time gently nibbling on her lip. Blake let out an involuntary moan.

“Later,” she said, pulling away.

“All right,” Blake breathed, and even in the dim, moonlit tent, Yang could tell that Blake was smiling her small, cautious half-smile.

All at once, Yang felt a wave of overwhelming relief, and she started giggling helplessly again.

“What?” said Blake, sounding a bit nervous.

“I get to kiss Blake Belladonna,” she said. Blake blinked, as if she wasn’t sure how to process that information. Then she kissed Yang, fiercely, desperately, grabbing at her and hugging her tight.

“I,” she said when she finally pulled away, “get to kiss Yang Xiao Long.”

“I think,” Yang said, trying to catch her breath, “my thing is more exciting.”

“I disagree.”

“Well,” said Yang, slipping her hand underneath Blake’s shirt, “I guess we’ll have to keep kissing until we figure out which one of us is the most excited.”

Blake gasped, then nodded.

* * *

Yang woke up the next morning to find Blake’s body wrapped entirely around hers, hands buried in her hair, face pressed against her neck, and legs wrapped around her waist.

“I think you won,” she murmured into the top of Blake’s head.

Blake made a sleepy, contented noise. “Sorry I’m on top of you like this."

Yang kissed her on the cheek. “I liked it.”

Clearly reluctant, Blake extricated herself from the sleeping bag. “I’m going to go start breakfast.”

“Good idea,” Yang yawned. “Oh, hey, Blake. When we get back to civilization, do you want to get coffee together sometime?”

Blake laughed, turning her face away as if to try to hide the fact that she was blushing. “I’d like that.” She left the tent.

Yang, feeling relaxed for the first time in weeks, sighed and settled back into her sleeping bag.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to paradox523 for brainstorming help and princessofthehellmouth for beta-ing!


End file.
